Ozzy Osbourne was @£$%&* annoyed. When police in North Dakota were hunting around for a way of bringing in hundreds of petty criminals on outstanding arrest warrants, they hit on the novel idea of inviting them to a fake party the night the rocker was due to play a local arena.

More than 30 people turned up at the nightclub in Fargo hoping to meet the former Black Sabbath frontman and reality television star. They were promptly arrested.

But the inventive Sheriff Paul Loney, who organised the criminal caper for 500, had made one small slip. He had never bothered to ask how Osbourne might feel about having his name used to lure petty criminals.

"Sheriff Laney should be apologising to me for using my name in connection with these arrests," Osbourne said in a statement. "It is insulting to me and to my audience and it shows how lazy this particular sheriff is when it comes to doing his job."

The sheriff was unapologetic, saying that the greater good of the community had been served. "We meant no disrespect toward Mr Osbourne or his show," Mr Laney said, adding that the people on his guest list had evaded arrest for years.

"They get very creative in how they abscond from the law," he told reporters. "We just got real creative in how we reeled them in."

The sheriff claimed that three of those on the wanted list had later turned themselves in.